According to Senol Gunes, Dele Alli went AWOL for a couple of days last week, a claim denied by the former Tottenham Hotspur player - but we all knew the Besiktas manager was wrong anyway … Dele Alli went AWOL a long while ago.
First things first, it is a big ask to feel sorry for a young man who has lived the high life and who, unless he has been spectacularly reckless with his money, is financially set for good. Heck, Dele has over 12 months of a two-and-a-half year contract with Everton - reported to be worth £100,000 a week - left to run.
Even by Everton’s rock-bottom standards, that was a particularly shocking piece of business. Any sympathy for Dele would involve the smallest handkerchief in history.
In many ways, his story is one that symbolises the obscenity of the largesse given to young men who, at some stage of their professional life, can kick a ball around to decent effect.
Yet when someone wastes prodigious talent, it is hard not to wonder what could have been. When England recorded their first win on Italian soil in six decades on Thursday night, it was Gareth Southgate’s 50th victory as the national team manager.
His first was an uninspiring 2-0 triumph over Malta at Wembley in October, 2016. Dele Alli scored in that game and would go on to feature 24 times under Southgate, also scoring in a World Cup quarter-final. He had earned 39 caps by the time he had only just turned 23 and his club career was flourishing.
Dele had the footballing world at his talented feet. But Southgate dropped Dele in October, 2019, and Mauricio Pochettino was sacked by Spurs a month later.
There have been short periods when a resurgence seemed possible but, generally, Dele has been in a tailspin ever since. By all accounts, his loan spell in Turkey has become little short of an embarrassment.
And his progression to the very pinnacle of his sport had been a heart-warming story, estranged from his broken family at a very early age, living with parents of a friend, he had still shown the fortitude to make it to the top, battling against some of the prejudices that still exist in the English game.
But, in terms of a place amongst the elite bracket of players, he looks finished now and you can only wonder how someone did not find a way to keep him on track, to help him out if he needed help.
Perhaps the relatively new Everton manager will when Dele returns to Goodison Park but you suspect Sean Dyche would be unimpressed by his attitude. This is a player described as “a ****ing lazy guy” by Jose Mourinho.
Perhaps Southgate will reach out privately with some advice and encouragement as a payback for Dele’s contribution to a World Cup 2018 campaign that helped establish Southgate as a comparatively successful England manager.
Perhaps Dele will seek help from someone who is not just trying to make a few quid out of him. But perhaps he is beyond redemption.
Perhaps, as a footballer, he is washed up a fortnight shy of his 27th birthday. And when he watches his old team-mate Harry Kane lead England out against Ukraine at Wembley today, that will surely hurt.
Or maybe it won’t, maybe he just doesn’t care. Either way, and despite his millions, it is a real shame.
